Mensch tracht, und Gott lacht

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Charm City Offensive

I'm going to have to stop making fun of Maryland politics. There's no sport in it anymore.

Earlier this week, Baltimore was honored with a top ten spot in Morgan Quitno's annual Most Dangerous City award, snagging the coveted number six from Washington DC, which fell to 13th this year. So of course the Baltimore City Council took swift action. Faced with evidence that their city continues to be plagued with failing schools, corrupt and incompetent police, and drug dealer turf wars, they suspended all regular business to....pass a resolution calling for immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. One council member, Keiffer Mitchell, said he had been moved by "the deaths of soldiers from Baltimore and Maryland" to vote in favor of the motion.

Hold on there, Mr. Mitchell. If you want to protect the young men of the Old Line State, maybe you should leave them where they are. Since March 2003, there have been 1,647 US fatalities attributable to hostile action in the entire country of Iraq. During the same time, there have been 885 murders in Baltimore, a city with a total population of about 650,000.

I can understand if Baltimore wants some military assistance in dealing with the war-torn streets of Park Heights and Canton, but I think we could spare a few from Quantico or AP Hill; there's no need to bring them all the way back from Iraq.

1 comment:

Tom Van Dyke said...

You remind me of when our reality-based friends ask about the "metrics" of the Iraq war, Kathy. I shall advise them to keep your metrics in mind, in case I happen on one with an interest in putting things in perspective.

Unlike the useless carnage in Baltimore, the history of the Iraq war will never reveal its alternatives. BTW, the metrics of Bill Clinton's much-admired humanitarian intervention in the former Yugoslavia are a bit off, too.